Too-Loud TV Commercials A Thing Of The Past

New FCC rules go into effect that outlaw television commercials that are louder than the program content surrounding them.

Listen up, TV advertisers: Big Brother is muting you! Well, not entirely. But beginning at midnight tonight, new Federal Communications Commission rules will bar television networks from blasting viewers with those excessively loud, screamy commercial breaks. At last you can retrieve your sanity from Empire Carpet and the KIA Hamsters. (The rules will not, however, get those damn kids off your lawn.)

Adopted a year ago Thursday, the rules “will require commercials to have the same average volume as the programs they accompany,” the FCC says. The commission was prompted to action last year when Congress passed the “Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act”—the CALM Act. (Never mind the irony of regulating ads with legislation that sounds like it was named in a focus group.)

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.